Rikkaidai's Lack of a Coach
by Arysthae
Summary: Many schools in the area of Japan have a coach. Seigaku, Rokkaku, Hyotei and Yamabuki are among the masses of people who have that teacher figure for their tennis team. But Rikkaidai doesn't. Sanada muses over that fact, as he oversees tennis practise.


**Rikkaidai's Lack of a Coach**

**AN: This idea came to me while I was watching the anime. Nearly every team has a coach. In my school, it's necessary, for the club to even be approved, for it to have a teacher as a guidance figure. Fudoumine doesn't have a trainer, for obvious reasons, but then, neither does Rikkaidai. That kind of fascinated me and I wondered why and couldn't really come up with one. Then I wondered whether they really needed one and the answer led me to write this fic.**

Sanada wondered some days, whether Rikkaidai's tennis team needed a coach. Many of the other schools in the region had coaches, such as Seigaku, Hyotei, Rokkaku and Yamabuki, but Rikkaidai was one of few schools who conspicuously lacked one.

He had to admit, maybe it would be in their best interests to get one. With Yukimura in hospital, Sanada was in charge of all 50 Rikkaidai members, regular and not. As it was, it was difficult enough to keep the Regulars out of trouble, let alone the non-regulars.

Sanada crossed his arms over his chest from where he was sitting on the bench sidelines, watching everyone train inside the gym. He was constantly alert and couldn't let himself get distracted at all. In fact, he barely ever trained himself at school, when it came to tennis, because he was so busy making sure that everyone was actually doing what they're supposed to.

He could only be grateful that some members of his team were actually obedient, like Jackal, Marui and Yagyuu. He was grateful for their existence and grateful that they made the effort to submit to his temporary authority.

Currently, Jackal and Marui were training against the tennis machines, working seamlessly as a doubles team. Sanada let himself nod a little in their direction; their coordination got better every day. Yagyuu was teaching and overseeing the non-regulars' practice, without a single emotion on his cold face. Wait no, Yagyuu wasn't supposed to be overseeing it alone. He was supposed to be paired with Renji—

Sanada turned around and glared at his friend, who was leaning against the wall, coolly watching the team through his half-lidded eyes. "Renji…" Sanada said, a warning tone to his voice.

"Yagyuu is doing a brilliant job by himself, Genichirou. The second years deeply respect him and they aren't afraid of him. Currently, their performance is at 89.5%. If I were to join in, it would plummet to something like 62%, from factors such as annoyance, fear and hatred." Yanagi said, tilting his head sideways. "Besides, it's easier to improve my tennis by analysis."

"You never change, do you, Renji?" said Sanada, rolling his eyes under the safety of his cap.

"93% that you were going to say that." Renji murmured and Sanada merely resumed his scanning of the courts.

Now, he had to check on the troublemakers. Kirihara was thrashing a few third-years repeatedly in straight sets, his face furrowed in concentration. His 'devil' mode hadn't shown up once. Sanada hoped that this was because Kirihara had turned a new leaf, especially after his turmoil at the Junior Selection Camp, but it was far more likely that his opponents weren't able to challenge him. Sanada knew that he'd stay out of trouble until practice finished and then Jackal would make sure that he didn't nod off on the bus home and end up halfway across the country.

The other troublemaker, however, was nowhere to be seen. Sanada sat up a little and scanned the courts quickly for a glimpse of the tousled white hair.

"Renji—" He called, a little hint of nervousness to his voice.

"Niou went off to get some water, 10 minutes ago." said Renji, "There's a 95% chance that it was merely a cover for him to pull off some prank."

"Renji!" he snapped, turning around. The last time that Niou had obtained 10 minutes by himself, the locker room had been filled with tennis balls. Sanada hadn't even known how Niou had managed to obtain so many tennis balls, but after he'd made Niou run 100 laps and 50 abdominal drills, the tennis balls had vanished as mysteriously as they had arrived. Which was really a shame; Rikkaidai could have used some new tennis balls. The rate at which they were lost and/or destroyed was frankly, alarming, and all to be blamed on everyone's habit of temper tantrums. Mostly Kirihara, but there _were_ other members prone to fits of anger and/or destruction.

"I'll go find him, shall I?"Renji asked, cheerfully turning around whistling a little. Sanada fought back the urge to slap him, as it would set a bad example to the non-regulars, especially since Renji hadn't lost a match since Seigaku. But Sanada had lost then as well, so he could hardly talk.

Sanada sighed. He swore, if Niou wasn't so brilliant, he would have skinned him alive by this point. Over half of his stress at these tennis meetings was made up by worrying over what Niou would do next and coming up with ever more daunting punishments, in the hopes of deterring his roguish actions. And it wasn't like Yukimura would be any help, even if he was here. He just laughed at his team's actions, and smiled infuriatingly.

Sanada sighed a little in relief as Yanagi dragged Niou back, Niou looking a little down-heartened. There was an abnormal amount of flour in Niou's hair and on his uniform but since Yanagi was still clean, it obviously wasn't everywhere. "Niou." he said, sternly.

"Yes, Sanada-fukubuchou?" he asked, his voice seemingly innocent.

"Tarandoru." he said, harshly, voice booming. There were many times that he was glad that his grandfather was a retired military officer and his voice could make very single kendo-user under his control shiver with fear. "Go play Kirihara. With your right hand. Now. If you lose worse than 6-4, then you will be running 200 laps."

"What makes you think I'll lose, fukubuchou?" asked Niou. At Sanada's glare, Niou placed his hands in the air. "Okay, okay, I'm going!"

Sanada closed his eyes for a moment, as he took in a deep breath. He really wanted a coach for their tennis team, on some days.

"Genichirou, is it true that Seiichi will be back in school tomorrow?" Yanagi asked, leaning on the bench, whispering close to Sanada's ear.

It was true, but it was something that Sanada had not disclosed to anybody on the tennis team, as they would expect that he would be back to playing for the tennis team immediately, when in actuality, Yukimura still had trouble walking in a straight line without aid.

"Renji…" he asked, his voice trailing off a little, keeping an eye on Kirihara's match with Niou, which was surprisingly, in Niou's favour. "What's the probability of Yukimura getting ill once more?"

The doctor had ruled out any risk to Yukimura now that the surgery had been successful, but Sanada had always trusted Yanagi's predictions far more than any doctor.

"Now that the surgery has been operated, there is a 3% chance of recurring symptoms in Seiichi. However, his recovery time is set for another 5 weeks until he is in full form once again. I fear that, if Seichii tries to go back to his old routine immediately, the risk of recurring symptoms will increase exponentially." Renji said, his face set in a cold mask.

"Then we'll have to stop him from returning to his old routine, Renji. I refuse to see him like that again." Sanada said, quietly.

"Agreed." Yanagi said, stretching out. "Anyway, I'm going to see if I can up my speed with some of the machines. Don't forget that practice ends in fifteen minutes, Genichirou."

Sanada nodded to Yanagi, before turning back to watch the non-regulars. There was a lot of potential, but he felt that Kirihara would have a tough time making a good team, once all of the third-years graduated. Of course, he personally thought that Kirihara would have a tough time trying to deal with any sort of responsibility, but both Yanagi and Yukimura, who were both fonder of the wayward second-year than he was, felt that the responsibility would work in his favour and in the favour of the school.

Sanada would have felt better if there was a coach on the team to keep Kirihara remembering things like paperwork and timings.

But, as Sanada mused over it, what did a Coach really do?

From what he'd seen of the other coaches, it seemed like they did paperwork, fought for the tennis team for the school, was in charge of punishment, decided who played for the team in every match, and was generally a chaperone for the middle school students.

Well, paperwork was well handled between he and Yanagi, though both of them found it dull work. Sure, they found it a little difficult and often had to refer to huge 1000 page books about laws and loopholes and random regulations, but they managed with the help of Yanagi's mother, who was a successful lawyer.

And the tennis team hardly needed to curry favour with the school. With two national wins under their belt, the school practically bent over backwards to meet the requests of the tennis team.

It was because of the school's willingness to throw money at the tennis team, that they even had the state-of-the-art equipment that was currently making their tennis powers even stronger. And besides, Yanagi practically lived in the teacher's lounge and attended any sports meeting on the behalf of the tennis team. No one complained. Least of all, Yanagi.

Deciding who played what was always done by Yukimura. He had an eye for these things and often asked the opinions of the players themselves. They hadn't lost a single match when they played in the formations that Yukimura set out for them. Still, it must have been stressful on Yukimura, Sanada mused. He'd heard Atobe complaining about how difficult it was to place everyone in decent orders for the matches during the Selectional Camp and surprisingly, Tezuka had agreed with him.

Chaperoning was easily covered. Sanada regularly passed off as an adult and he was always made sure that nobody wandered off or did anything stupid. Well, he tried. Sometimes, the force of nature that was Kirihara's desire to wander about causing trouble was too much to be contained. Then, Sanada just let him loose and stuck Jackal on him as a babysitter. It was better than keeping him with the team all the time. Niou was surprisingly obedient when they were outside of the school, presumably Yagyuu's influence.

Punishment…well, that would have been nice to have some help with. Yukimura was pretty useless when it came to punishment, since he was fairly pleasant off the tennis courts and unwilling to damage his protégés. And Yanagi seemed to prefer to take data on how they reacted to punishment, than to actually dole out the punishment. If anyone broke rules, Sanada dealt with it. And his word was law.

Like now, for instance. "Kirihara, throwing your racket at Niou's face is not likely to bring back the four games you just lost. Finish the match and then do 100 abdominal drills and 50 bicep drills. Stay behind after practice, if you must." Sanada barked. Still, he was impressed. Niou was beating Kirihara pretty soundly, and despite Kirihara's fury at being outwitted, there wasn't a single trace of burst blood vessels in Kirihara's eyes.

Sanada's word was law when it came to punishment. It was probably for the best that Rikkaidai didn't have a coach, because that idea would have been disrupted. The Big Three knew exactly what was best for their team. No teacher or coach would be able to do what they did.

Besides, Rikkaidai had won the Nationals two years in row without any special coach or training. No other school had replicated that feat yet. They were the best. They diddn't need a coach.

..who knew, maybe it was a trend? He'd heard many good things about Tachibana's team, Fudoumine, also without a team coach. Sanada smirked a little.

"YES!" screamed Kirihara from where he'd just finished his game with Niou, 6-4, exactly as Sanada had predicted. Still, Sanada was sure that Niou could have made the score more even than that, judging by Niou's arrogant smirk towards Sanada.

As Kirihara started on his drills, taunting some of the other people he'd beaten, Sanada sighed. Rikkaidai didn't need a coach this year, but next year?

…he'd better start collecting applications in his spare time.


End file.
